Retailers look beyond transaction processing, says Venuturupalli
Global analytics software leader FICO (NYSE: FICO) of Bozeman, Montana, has named Tech Mahindra (NSE: TECHM) as one of the winners of its second annual Global System Integrator (GSI) Partner Hackathon. Held at FICO’s Bengaluru campus, the event invited leading GSI partners to compete in building real-world solutions to complex financial challenges using FICO® Platform, with one winning team selected from each participating partner.
The winning team from Tech Mahindra developed an innovative solution designed to tackle one of India’s most pressing e-commerce challenges: the outsized financial losses caused by Cash-on-Delivery (COD) returns.
According to industry reports, India’s e-commerce sector loses billions annually to COD returns, with Return-to-Origin (RTO) rates of 25-30% for COD orders, compared to just 2-3% for prepaid.
Built on FICO Platform, the solution evaluates more than 70 risk signals across the cart-to-payment journey, simultaneously determining COD eligibility, prepaid incentive strategy, delivery partner selection, and dark store routing. The solution is designed to provide transparent, explainable, and audit-ready decisioning. Based on one million orders per month, the platform was projected to deliver a 6-9% reduction in RTO rates, translating to Rs.1 crore (approximately $120,000 USD) in monthly loss reductions.
Leveraging its deep expertise in AI, analytics, and enterprise platform engineering, Tech Mahindra developed the solution to help retailers address one of the most significant operational challenges in India’s rapidly growing e-commerce ecosystem. Designed for enterprise-scale deployment, the solution evaluates multiple risk and business parameters in real time to optimize payment eligibility, fulfilment, and logistics decisions. Its transparent and audit-ready architecture enables organizations to strengthen governance while reducing operational losses and supporting long-term business resilience.
Anil Venuturupalli, SVP, Global Head of the Banking & Products Group and Chief Product Officer for the Financial Services (FS), Tech Mahindra, said, “As digital commerce continues to accelerate, retailers are increasingly looking beyond transaction processing to intelligent decision-making that can proactively reduce risk while delivering seamless customer experiences.”
“Our award-winning solution demonstrates how intelligent decisioning can help enterprises make transparent, real-time decisions across the customer journey, enabling smarter fulfilment, optimized payment strategies, and improved operational outcomes. This recognition by FICO reinforces our commitment to developing scalable, data-driven innovations that address complex business challenges and create measurable value for enterprises,” he said on 27 July.
The Tech Mahindra solution was evaluated by a panel of five FICO judges based on alignment with the challenge, business impact, innovation, customer appeal, teamwork, and quality of presentation.
Recognition at FICO® World 2026
The winning Tech Mahindra team presented their solution at FICO® World 2026, which took place 19-20 May 2026, at the Signia by Hilton, Orlando, Florida. The team presented in the Demo Theatre, offering attendees a deep dive into how real-time decisioning is being applied to reduce e-commerce losses at scale.
“The best solutions solve problems people have stopped trying to fix,” said Jason Andrew, Chief Revenue Officer at FICO. “Tech Mahindra looked at India’s COD returns crisis and saw an opportunity where others saw an inevitability. That is the power of FICO Platform in the hands of talented, motivated teams, and it is why we invest in partnerships like this one.”
Tech Mahindra (NSE: TECHM, BSE: 532755) offers technology consulting and digital solutions to global enterprises across industries, enabling transformative scale at unparalleled speed. With 146,000+ professionals across 90 countries, Tech Mahindra provides a full spectrum of services including consulting, information technology, enterprise applications, business process services, engineering services, network services, customer experience & design, AI & analytics, and cloud & infrastructure services.
FICO (NYSE: FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 200 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, insurance, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. fiinews.com
